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Dig In: Garden checklist for week of Sept. 8

This week could be the perfect time to plant for fall, winter

Violas can be transplanted now for color in the flower bed and in containers. Try putting a few at the base of roses, and watch them grow up into the canes.

Violas can be transplanted now for color in the flower bed and in containers. Try putting a few at the base of roses, and watch them grow up into the canes. Kathy Morrison

Do you have any summer veggies left? This last heat spike finished off a lot of crops, thanks to at least three consecutive triple-digit days. But relief from the heat looks like it’s on the way.

(Anything that survived may make it for several weeks more.)

According to the National Weather Service, afternoon high temperatures will return to the low 90s or even 80s by Tuesday, Sept. 9. The rest of the week looks comfortably normal with Sacramento highs hovering around 90 degrees and overnight lows about 60; that’s typical for these last weeks of summer.

It’s also ideal weather for planting cool-season vegetables, flowers and seeds. It’s a good time to transplant perennials and shrubs, too. In fact, the rest of the month kicks off fall planting season.

September typically is on the milder side, averaging highs of 87 degrees in Sacramento. That makes it excellent for planting – whether it’s veggie seeds or whole trees. Warm soil makes for rapid root development.

Just make sure to keep seeds and transplants comfortably moist. Don’t let them dry out.

* Harvest tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons and eggplant.

* Compost annuals and vegetable crops that have finished producing.

* Cultivate and add compost to the soil to replenish its nutrients for fall and winter vegetables and flowers.

* Fertilize deciduous fruit trees.

* Plant onions, lettuce, peas, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, bok choy, spinach and potatoes directly into the vegetable beds.

* Transplant cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower as well as lettuce seedlings.

* Sow seeds of California poppies, clarkia and African daisies.

* Transplant cool-weather annuals such as pansies, violas, fairy primroses, calendulas, stocks and snapdragons.

* Divide and replant bulbs, rhizomes and perennials.

* Dig up and divide daylilies as they complete their bloom cycle.

* Divide and transplant peonies that have become overcrowded. Replant with “eyes” about an inch below the soil surface.

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Garden Checklist for week of Feb. 16

Take advantage of this nice weather. There’s plenty to do as your garden starts to switch into high gear for spring growth.

* This is the last chance to spray fruit trees before their buds open. Treat peach and nectarine trees with copper-based fungicide. Spray apricot trees at bud swell to prevent brown rot. Apply horticultural oil to control scale, mites and aphids on fruit trees.

* Check soil moisture before resuming irrigation. Most likely, your soil is still pretty damp.

* Feed spring-blooming shrubs and fall-planted perennials with slow-release fertilizer. Feed mature trees and shrubs after spring growth starts.

* Transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.

* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots.

* Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and cauliflower – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).

* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.

* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions.

* Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.

* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.

* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.

* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.

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